Patriots take step forward
| Saturday, Oct 03 2009 12:05 AM
Last Updated Saturday, Oct 03 2009 12:07 AM
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Rod Thornburg/ Special to The Californian Liberty vs BHS Football Excellent blocking from Liberty's #45 Cody Temple allows #32 Zach Vasquez to get a touch down.
Rod Thornburg/ Special to The Californian Liberty vs BHS Football #8 Brian Burrell gets streched out by Liberty's #32 Zach Vasquez and #39 unIdentified Liberty player waits to make sure he goes down.
Rod Thornburg/ Special to The Californian Liberty vs BHS Football #20 Tyler Gellinck of Liberty is surrounded by a horde of BHS opponents.
Rod Thornburg/ Special to The Californian Liberty vs BHS Football #12 Brandon Johnson of BHS grabs a hold of #22 Carson Moyer and rides him to the ground.
Liberty High School showed something new Friday night: an effective, ball-controlling offense.
The Patriots, plagued by offensive inconsistency during their first three games, had touchdown drives of 87, 76 and 80 yards and opened Southeast Yosemite League play with a 27-20 win over Bakersfield High at Liberty.
"Last week we started moving the chains," said Dillon Meadows, Liberty's senior quarterback who was 6-of-10 for 88 yards and a touchdown and added a team-high 84 rushing yards on 21 carries.
"We knew our offense would click," Meadows added. "We knew what they did on defense and we tried to exploit it. We knew our defense would hold. We gave up a couple of big plays but our offense battled back."
The Patriots (2-2) opened the game by driving 87 yards, capped by Zach Vasquez's 4-yard touchdown run. Bakersfield High (2-2) never caught up.
"The bottom line is the kids are getting a little better fundamentally and taking care of the ball," said Liberty coach Tony Mills. "Tonight it wasn't perfect but we made progress."
The Drillers made it interesting late in the game, driving from their 10-yard line to the Liberty 13 with no time outs left and only 3:30 remaining when the drive started.
Craig McMahon hit his second 29-yard field goal of the night with 1:14 left to pull the Drillers within 27-20, but the Patriots recovered the ensuing onside kick and ran out the clock.
"I tell our kids it isn't the X's and O's that wins games," Mills said. "It's the Jimmys and Joes. Tonight our Jimmys and Joes won the game."
Bakersfield was coming off a 56-41 loss at Clovis-Buchanan one week earlier.
Turnovers have hurt the Drillers all season, and they had three more on Friday: two interceptions and a fumble that Liberty's Mason Otten picked up and returned 43 yards for a touchdown. One of the interceptions ended a drive that had reached the Patriot 28-yard line
BHS coach Paul Golla said it's imperative for the Drillers to correct mistakes he's seeing each week.
"Just simple things," Golla said. "Getting up field on runs. Looking back in the backfield when we should be doing something else. Tackling. Turnovers -- there doesn't need to be turnovers.
"We're a good football team. We're too good to be playing this bad."
The long Liberty scoring drives illustrated an ongoing problem, Golla said.
"That's a big red flag," he said. "It's simply breakdowns. When there's a big play it's because there's a breakdown."
In addition to the touchdowns by Vasquez and Otten, the Patriots had a 43-yard TD run by Tyler Gellinck and Ross Hough caught a perfectly thrown 8-yard TD pass from Meadows.
Bakersfield's touchdowns were passes by quarterback Brian Burrell -- a 24-yard catch by Alfonso Jackson and a 64-yard play to Mercy Maston.
Jackson, the Drillers' most dangerous player, was limited to 48 rushing yards on 14 carries.
